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The Grifters

The Grifters

Movie · 1990 · 15 people

Stephen Frears directed the 1990 American neo-noir crime thriller The Grifters (Dolandırıcılar in Türkiye), produced by Martin Scorsese. "Grifter" is American slang for a con artist who wins a victim's trust through psychological finesse. Donald E. Westlake adapted the screenplay from Jim Thompson's 1963 novel. John Cusack had read the book in 1985 and wanted to adapt it.

The story follows Roy Dillon (John Cusack), a young hustler living off small cons. His mother Lilly (Anjelica Huston), who runs betting scams for the mob, reappears after years apart, and his girlfriend Myra (Annette Bening), also a grifter, dislikes her at once. Caught between the two women, Roy must either leave the life or aim for far bigger scores, while it grows unclear who is playing whom.

The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on 14 September 1990 and reached US cinemas through Miramax on 5 December 1990. Its release was limited and it earned close to 14 million dollars, yet it drew four Oscar nominations: Huston for best actress, Bening for best supporting actress, Frears for director and Westlake for adapted screenplay. It won the Independent Spirit Award for best film and made the National Board of Review's top ten of the year. Elmer Bernstein composed the score.

DirectorStephen Frears
Production companyCineplex Odeon Films

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Cast

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Paul Adelstein Paul Adelstein Actor · 57 years old Sailor - Young Paul Steve Buscemi Steve Buscemi Film actor · 68 years old John Cusack Anjelica Huston Annette Bening Pat Hingle J.T. Walsh Henry Jones Stephen Tobolowsky Xander Berkeley Charles Napier Eddie Jones Gailard Sartain Lou Hancock Michael Laskin

More from this director

Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

When Donald E. Westlake's adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel meets Frears's cool-headed direction, the result is a neo-noir that knows the genre's rules without surrendering to them. Its strength lies in the triangle: mother, son and girlfriend, each both a con artist and a potential mark, with the script deliberately blurring who is playing whom. That its four Oscar nominations were spread across acting, directing and adapted screenplay shows the balance is no accident. Elmer Bernstein's score supports the detached tone. My reservation: the film deliberately denies its characters warmth, so viewers who want an emotional connection may be left on the outside.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

If you are waiting for chases or shootouts, you will be disappointed; the tension here comes entirely from people deceiving one another. Still, the game is well set up: each of the three characters is hiding something and every move raises the stakes a little more. The pace starts slow and asks for patience. But once the question of who will trap whom takes hold, it is gripping enough for a thriller fan who likes mind games.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The film depicts a world where trust is bought and sold like a commodity. The word grifter itself names a swindler who wins the victim's confidence, and the most unsettling thing about the film is that the bond between mother and son is no exception to that logic. Family here is not a refuge but another bargaining table. A mother running betting scams for the mob and a son scraping by on small cons show the survival ethics of people living at the edge of the American dream. The film watches all this without judging, from a cold distance; that choice is both its strength and its limit.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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